Provide patrons notification of reasons for failure to renew a loan
Please note: this idea is not ours originally. We voted for this as an institution as part of the first round of NERS 2018, where it was Req ID 5782. I noticed that it isn't in Ideas Exchange now (or at least I don't think so).
Quoting the original description: 'We would like it to be possible to notify users when they have an item on loan that cannot be renewed, and to explain the reason to them so as to avoid confusion to patrons. Reasons may include: - because it is requested, - the patron has reached their expiry period - or the item has reached its maximum renewal period.
Currently when an item is about to go overdue a notification is sent to warn a user that an item must be renewed or returned even if there is a request on the item. However, when a renewal is attempted, whether by the patron, automatically, or by staff, it fails, e.g. because of the request, with no notification of the failure which is confusing to the end user.'
The Courtesy Notices now includes the last renew status and date in its XML. This can be used to notify the patron why the last automatic renew failed.
For more information please see Alma December release notes.
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olga gilshtein commented
as Naomi has written, how does it help? when "last_renew_status" field has mostly coded values like 401167? there is nowhere any explanation about what are the possible values for trying to write a code that will show the end user the meaning behind the numbers + we need it to be translatable - and there is still no option to add manually as much fields as we need
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Naomi commented
The courtesy letters indeed include now a reason, but it's hard to define those reasons: some of them are in the table: Automatic Renew Reject Reasons, but most of them are in the fulfillment - labels table, hidden with codes and also 1 note includes different reasons. This is not consistent and not friendly.
Naomi
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Anonymous commented
This would be very useful - other useful explanations would be blocks such as overdue recalled items or fines above the limit
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Manu Schwendener commented
Planned for Q3, 2019
(Source: Primo Quarterly Update 2019, Q2)
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Manu Schwendener commented
NERS 5782: got 226 votes in April 2019, threshold for round 2 was 250.
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Kate Webb commented
Dear Moshe,
I think what Tom means is that when an item fails to auto renew, the patron is sent an email notification, and in the content of this notification there needs to be included an explanation as to why the items has failed to renew, in order that the patron knows what to do about it.
e.g. the item is requested- return asap and by the due date, or
the item has reached its maximum renewal period, please return asap and re-borrow if still required, or
your library account has expired, please return all items or contact the library to query your expiry date etc. etc.We would certainly find this very helpful and an improvement to the user experience.
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Hi,
You say that 'when a renewal is attempted, whether by the patron, automatically, or by staff, it fails, e.g. because of the request, with no notification of the failure which is confusing to the end user'.
I am not sure what's being asked for in this idea. When renewing in Alma you do see the reason for the renew failure. Can you elaborate ?
Thanks,